No Regrets
by snapple79
Summary: An alternate take on some events from 510. Andy talks to Sam about the key to his apartment, and disarming the bomb doesn't go as planned. One-shot.


Sorry this is fairly short. I had some ideas in my head, but real life is getting in the way (along with speculation about 511), so I didn't have time to do anything super long, but still wanted to get this out. And, I haven't done this in a while, but the only way this fic made sense was to use some dialogue from the show in the beginning, so you'll see that. Hope you enjoy it! Please let me know what you think with a review. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Rookie Blue.

* * *

**No Regrets**

Sam and Andy were lying in bed, talking about the upcoming Commissioner's Gala when Sam decided he wanted to give Andy something he'd had made for her days ago. "I got something for ya," he said, sliding out of bed.

Andy trailed her fingers along his chest as he moved, already missing the warmth of his body against hers. "Oh yeah?"

She sat up slightly as he grabbed something off the dresser and came back to bed. Kneeling in front of her, Sam held a shiny metal key. She sat up even further as she took a sharp intake of breath. "What's that?" she asked, barely able to get the words out.

"What is that? It's, uh, a key, that's the key to my heart. It also happens to open the front door," he said, leaning in to kiss her.

After a few moments, Andy pulled back, her heart still racing with what Sam continued to hold between them. "Um, that's...that's a..." She swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to form words that made sense. "That's a key."

"I thought we established that," he said cheekily, before recognizing the intense fear on her face. He shifted into a sitting position as he faced her.

"You've been spending nearly every night here and, uh, I thought, we're bound to get scheduled on different shifts at some point. Having your own key would be convenient," he explained. It was more than for convenience, but beyond the corny 'key to my heart' comment he couldn't find a way to express that.

"Things are going really great with us right now. I don't want to screw that up," she admitted.

"And a key would do that?" His eyes moved from her face down to the key he rolled between his fingers.

"Yes, I mean, well, no...it's complicated." She shifted to get out of the bed, the feeling of flight trying to take over, but Sam grabbed hold of her arm gently to keep her in place.

"Andy…It's simple. I want you to have the key," he said. "You stick it on your key ring and use it when needed."

She took a shaky breath and shook her head. She was terrified. A key was big. And all she could think about was what happened between them before. If she didn't accept his key now, he couldn't ask for it back later.

"What about when you want it back?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper as her eyes filled with tears.

A sudden realization hit him like a ton of bricks and he let go of her and slouched back. Her eyes told him all that he needed to know, that she was thinking about when he asked for his spare keys back after he broke up with her. "That's not gonna happen this time."

"You don't know that."

"Yes I do. You said it yourself, we have to be different this time. And we are, we're doing it right," he told her.

She pressed her lips together in a tight smile. "I'm terrified."

"Me too. But that's what makes it fun," he said, his dimples popping out with a smile. He held out the key once again, and watched her eye it carefully before taking it from him.

"I _really _don't want to screw this up," she told him. There was a lot of fear rooted deep inside her stemming from the failure of their relationship the first time around. Sam was it for her, she knew that. However, she was terrified that something would screw this up, and she'd never be able to recover if things went south with them again. She wouldn't be able to deal with that pain.

"The feeling is mutual. But life's too short to let fear stop us from moving forward," he said. "When I, uh, when I was shot, all I could think about was all the regrets I had…about us, or the lack of us. I don't want to have regrets."

She closed her hand around the key, the cold metal pressing into her palm. "I don't want to have regrets either. I'm sorry for freaking out. I want all of this, I do. You took me by surprise is all." She leaned in and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Thank you for the key and for…letting me in." The way her eyes smiled back at him he knew she wasn't simply talking about letting her into his apartment, but his heart as well. She pressed her lips against his.

Moments later, Sam pulled back slightly, letting his nose brush against hers as he did. "So, this gala, should I be buying a new suit or is something from my closet okay?"

"I may have picked you up a tie that matches my dress," she said, grinning. "But your black suit will be fine."

Smiling back at her, he captured her lips with his to savior the last few minutes before they had to get up for work.

* * *

That afternoon, Andy and Nick walked into a garage and found Duncan cuffed to the steering wheel of the pickup truck parked there. They quickly realized explosives were wired to the door and she called it in. Oliver told her that bomb squad was on their way, and they were about to settle in and wait for the backup until they saw the countdown on the clock reading less than eight minutes. Andy and Nick knew there was no way bomb squad would arrive in time.

"Andy, get out of here," Nick said after deciding he could disarm the bomb.

"No, I can help," she replied.

"I can do this," he said. "I've seen this a million times. I can disarm it. Get out of here."

"At least let one of the bomb techs walk you through it. They actually _do_ this all the time," she told him. His response was to lie down under the truck and start fiddling with things. "Just don't touch it. Give me a minute first," she said, even though she knew he was going to ignore her. He tried pulling this macho act all the time, only to end up looking like an idiot each and every time.

Pulling out her phone she walked toward the door of the garage so Duncan wouldn't overhear her conversation. "Oliver, it's bad. We have six minutes to disarm this thing. Is anyone from bomb – " Andy was cut off when a blast from behind threw her out the door. Landing face first into the grass, she groaned, and then felt the intense heat. Rolling over onto her back, she gasped as she looked into the garage. Flames scattered about, everything was black and she was pretty sure the truck wasn't in one piece anymore.

Sam had pulled up outside the house just in time to see Andy come flying out of the garage. He was already by her side when she tried sitting up, pain searing through her body. Kneeling down, he put a hand on her back to help her sit up and to comfort her. He brushed dust and tiny pieces of debris off her back and noticed a small cut on the back of her neck.

"We had seven minutes," she mumbled, dazed eyes still staring into the garage.

Sam heard a voice coming from the ground and saw Andy's phone lying about a foot away. He reached for it and saw Oliver's name on screen before bringing it to his ear. "We have a problem," Sam said.

"It was an explosion, wasn't it?" Oliver asked, guessing from the sounds he heard.

"Yeah. McNally's shaken up but okay. Oliver...I think Collins and Moore were still inside." Sam tried to get a good look into the garage but the smoke and flames made it nearly impossible.

"Any chance…" Oliver asked, trailing off as he wasn't ready to acknowledge two officers dying on his watch.

"It doesn't look good," Sam replied. With no idea if there were more explosions coming, Oliver immediately ordered no one inside until bomb squad cleared it.

"McNally," Sam said, trying to get her attention. "McNally. Andy!" With that, she finally stared up at him. "We gotta get away from the building, okay?" She nodded and he helped her to her feet, guiding her with an arm around her waist down the driveway.

Other officers had arrived and were roping off the area, so Sam's only concern now was Andy. He brought her to the front of the house and sat her down on the porch steps. "Are you okay?" he asked, standing in front of her.

Still in shock, she looked up at him confused. "Huh?"

"Are you okay? Do you hurt anywhere?" he asked.

She looked down at herself and brushed some dirt and grass off her vest. "No, I think...I think I'm okay," she replied.

"What happened?"

She shook her head as if doing so would clear her thoughts enough to focus on the facts. "After we called the situation in, we saw that the countdown on the bomb read under seven minutes." She glanced behind Sam as cars and a truck screeched to a halt in front of the house and a dozen bomb squad members went running toward the garage to secure it. Trying to focus again, she continued. "Nick was sure he could disarm the bomb because we didn't have time to wait for bomb squad. I told him we should at least get someone to walk him through it. He was...he was being stubborn. He started to work on it when I - oh god." She bent over holding her stomach, thinking she was going to be sick.

Sam sat down next to her, rubbing his hand up and down her back. She took some deep breaths to try and calm herself, before sitting up again. "Sam, it just happened. I turned my back to call Oliver and...and, ohmygod, Nick and Duncan…"

"I'm sorry," he said, wrapping an arm around her. "I know there's nothing I can say to make it better right now."

She leaned into his embrace and began thinking aloud as she tried to process what happened. "They were 10 feet from me. If I hadn't called Oliver, if I hadn't wanted to keep Duncan from hearing how bad it was, I'd be in there. They had no chance."

"I'm gonna be selfish here and be glad you were near that door," he admitted.

She twisted her body around so she could wrap both arms around him and hug him tight, with her head on his shoulder. She thought about their conversation that morning about not having any regrets. They never knew what each day on the job was going to bring them and tomorrow was never promised. Sam was right, she couldn't let fear stop her.

Sam closed his eyes for a moment and thought about what could have happened to her as he held her close and cupped the back of her head, not wanting to let her go.

They stayed like that for several minutes until Bailey walked over. "Officer McNally, can you run through what happened for me?" Bailey asked.

Standing up, with Sam at her side, Andy told him what happened from the time she arrived on scene to when the bomb exploded. He nodded as she spoke, as it matched up with what he suspected.

"From what I can tell, it was an elaborate setup and wouldn't have gone off before the timer reached zero. Unfortunately, Officer Collins should have known better than to start fiddling with it," Bailey explained. "I could've walked him through disarming it over the phone."

"Was there any chance, if we'd been able to get in there after the explosion, was there any chance we could've saved them?" Sam asked.

"No. They were killed instantly," Bailey replied, before glancing down the driveway as a colleague called out to him. "I need to get back to it, but the scene is secure. No additional explosives were found."

They watched Bailey walk away before turning to face each other. "What happens now?" Andy asked.

"You're getting checked out by the paramedics," he told her. She opened her mouth to protest, but shut it when Sam gave her his I'm-not-taking-no look. "You have a cut on the back of your neck, you were thrown to the ground, and the cut on your hand is bleeding again."

She looked at her bandaged hand and realized the fall must've bust open her cut because blood was starting to seep through the white wrapping. "Fine."

"Then you're done for the day. You're going home," he continued.

"No. Sam, no. I wanna be here, I want to help find the guy who did this. I have to," she pleaded.

"You just watched your rookie and your friend die. Oliver's not going to let you near this right now," he said, his tone going soft. "Look, take the truck, go home. I'll text you with updates."

She reluctantly nodded. "You'll call if there are big developments?"

He leaned over, pressing his lips to hers briefly. "I promise."

She started to head toward the paramedics before stopping and walking back to Sam. She ignored his questioning look and wrapped her arms around him. He was momentarily surprised and it took a minute before he was responding with his own arms around her.

"No wasting time. No regrets," she said, her words muffled into his chest. "It could've been me in there."

He kissed the top of her head, trying to sooth her. She pulled her head back so she could look at Sam. "Come home with me. I don't want to be alone."

No regrets, he thought. He wanted to spend every moment of his life with her, and to hell with work. He wouldn't be the detective that put the job over her. "Give me half an hour, until Oliver's on scene and in control of the situation. Okay?"

She smiled up at him. "Thank you."

* * *

The End.


End file.
